Airliners in Europe
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
An economic and technical analysis of small (regional) airliners in Europe Jakub Luska Bachelor Thesis 2012 ABSTRAKT Tato bakalářská práce je zaměřená na ekonomicko-technické zhodnocení regionálních dopravních letadel. V úvodu je stručné rozdělení letadel a popis základních prvků letecké infrastruktury. V první části práce popisuje historii evropského leteckého průmyslu včetně analýzy současné situace regionálních letadel na evropském trhu a porovnává proudová a turbovrtulová letadla. Druhá polovina práce je zaměřená na historii a současnost českého leteckého průmyslu. Poslední kapitola nastiňuje moţnosti zapojení Univerzity Tomáše Bati do leteckého průmyslu. Klíčová slova: proudové letadlo, turbovrtulové letadlo, regionální letecká doprava, letecký průmysl, Evektor, Aircraft Industries ABSTRACT This bachelor thesis is focused on an economic and technical analysis of regional airliners. In the beginning it describes brief division of an aircraft and a description of basic elements of air infrastructure. The first part of the thesis depicts a history of the European aviation industry including the current situation on the European market and compares jet and turboprop airliners. The second part describes historical development and the current situation of the Czech aviation industry. The last chapter discusses opportunities for Tomas Bata University in the aviation industry. Keywords: jet airliner, turboprop aircraft, regional air transport, aviation industry, Evektor, Aircraft Industries ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my whole family for their support during my studies and I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor doc. RNDr. Vojtěch Křesálek, CSc. for valuable guidance and advice. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 10 1 DIVISION OF AIRCRAFT AND INTRODUCTION TO AIR TRANSPORT ........................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Division according to power plant ......................................................................... 11 1.1.1 Propeller piston aircraft .................................................................................. 11 1.1.2 Turboprop aircraft ........................................................................................... 12 1.1.3 Jet airliners ...................................................................................................... 13 1.2 Division based on the width of aircraft body ......................................................... 13 2 AIR TRAFFIC INFRASTRUCTURE ...................................................................... 14 2.1 Airport ................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Air Navigation Services Providers ........................................................................ 15 2.2.1 Visual Navigation Services on Airport ........................................................... 16 2.3 Airline .................................................................................................................... 16 2.3.1 Technical section ............................................................................................ 16 2.3.2 Operations section .......................................................................................... 17 2.3.3 Flight section .................................................................................................. 17 2.3.4 Department for training of crews .................................................................... 18 2.4 Regulator................................................................................................................ 18 3 HISTORY OF EUROPEAN AVIATION INDUSTRY ........................................... 19 3.1 1948 - 1977 ............................................................................................................ 19 3.2 1978 – 1999 ........................................................................................................... 21 4 CURRENT SITUATION OF THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL AIRCRAFT ....... 23 4.1 Regional aircraft .................................................................................................... 23 4.1.1 Market distribution of regional aircraft .......................................................... 25 4.1.2 Price comparison of regional aircraft ............................................................. 27 4.2 Business Aircraft ................................................................................................... 27 4.2.1 European business aviation ............................................................................ 27 4.2.2 Price comparison of business aircraft ............................................................. 29 5 HISTORY OF CZECH AVIATION INDUSTRY ................................................... 31 5.1 General overview ................................................................................................... 31 5.1.1 1920 - 1948 ..................................................................................................... 31 5.1.2 1949 – 1989 .................................................................................................... 31 5.1.3 1989 – 1999 .................................................................................................... 32 5.2 AVIA ..................................................................................................................... 33 5.3 Aero.. ..................................................................................................................... 33 5.4 LET Kunovice (Aircraft Industries) ....................................................................... 35 6 CURRENT SITUATION OF AVIATION INDUSTRY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC ............................................................................................................... 38 6.1 LET Aircraft Industries .......................................................................................... 38 6.1.1 LET L-410 UVP-E20 ..................................................................................... 38 6.1.2 Export ............................................................................................................. 39 6.1.3 Modernization of L-410: The MOSTA Project .............................................. 40 6.2 Evektor-Aerotechnik .............................................................................................. 41 6.2.1 Evektor EV-55 Outback ................................................................................. 41 7 OPPORTINUTIES FOR TOMAS BATA UNIVERSITY ...................................... 43 7.1 CEBIA–Tech ......................................................................................................... 43 7.2 Evektor: The ARTEMIS Project ........................................................................... 43 7.3 Possible cooperation of Evektor–Aerotechnik and Aircraft Industries ................. 44 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 46 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 47 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. 50 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 51 TBU in Zlín, Faculty of Humanities 10 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, air traffic is very widespread and common all over the world. Even though it is the youngest mean of transport it is considered as the safest, fastest and the most comfortable. Regional air transport is successively replacing railways, bus services and automobile traffic. In fact, in some countries air traffic is already cheaper and used more than other previously mentioned means of transport. Popularity of regional air traffic is rapidly growing and it will be in the future. A few years ago, air carriers started to face a big obstacle in form of sharp price increases in petroleum. This fact made them seek for more efficient option for regional air services. Due to historical development of regional airplanes, many airlines were using mostly jet airliners, because they were considered to be safer, faster and more comfortable than other types of planes. However, now, when profit and fuel economy are extremely important, air carriers are turning back to turboprops as they are more efficient for short- haul flights than jets. Aircraft manufactures reacted to this situation and started producing new generation turboprop airliners causing removal of formal disadvantages and raise of popularity among passengers. These days, turboprop airliners experience a huge comeback and very likely more of them will start crossing the sky again. Of course turboprop airliners will not fully replace jets in all fields of air services. The jet airliners can carry higher number of passengers than turboprops and they are more efficient at high speed therefore they are the best option for long-haul flights. However, the best utilization of turboprop airliners is in regional flights with maximum distance of 2000 kilometers as they are efficient in low altitudes and slower speed. In the Czech Republic, there are two companies dealing with manufacture of regional turboprop